Marcus A. Murphy

Released
Gender:Male
Race:Black
Era:1950s
State:Missouri
Support
Communism Communist Party USA
No image available

Biography

Marcus Alphonse Murphy was a Black civil-rights activist and Communist Party defendant in the St. Louis Smith Act prosecution. He was indicted with four codefendants in 1952, convicted in 1954, and sentenced to five years in federal prison. The defendants remained on bond during their appeals. The Eighth Circuit reversed the convictions in 1958 after the Supreme Court narrowed the Smith Act, and the prosecution was abandoned. No service of the five-year sentence has been verified.

Case

Charges: Smith Act — indicted in St. Louis in 1953 as a Communist Party defendant.
Arrested: Sep 17, 1952
Sentenced: Jun 4, 1954
Sentence: Five years in federal prison. He remained on bond during appeal, the conviction was reversed in 1958, and service of the sentence has not been verified.
Convicted: Yes

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